Humane Society of Utah

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GET YOUR CATS TESTED FOR FELV/FIV BEFORE YOU TAKE THEM HOME!! My family and I went to adopt a cat today. We decided to start at the Utah Humane Society. The facility was impressive and Kitty City was very organized and clean with a lot of cats to chose from. We went through every room petting all of the animals. When we found one we liked, we took him into the private room for some one-on-one time. He was definitely a great match for our family and fell in love with him So I began the adoption process. It was then that I learned that the Utah Humane Society does not test for Feline Leukemia (Felv) and was told to have him examined within 10 days by a vet with a complimentary office visit from one of the participating veterinarians and was given a list to chose from. I was very surprised that they would not test their animals for a life threatening and contagious infection. We decided to adopt him anyway feeling optimistic about his health. However, as we drove away, I did call our vet for an appointment and we took our new cat, Steve, for a Felv test right away. A SNAP test was performed and within 25 minutes we knew his results. Unfortunately, his test came back positive for the infection. We were very upset by the news and immediately had to decide what to do to keep our cat of 5 years healthy. I called the Utah Humane Society to inform them that we had a positive result and the other cats he was housed with may also be infected. I was told by the adoption manager the they will take Steve back within 30 days for an exchange. We knew that if we returned Steve to the Humane Society that he would likely be destroyed. I was very upset that an Felv test is not performed on the animals they offer for adoption and that this facility is promoting the spread of disease and infection by not doing so. I am sure it is due to funding, however, such an easily transmittable infection should be tested especially because some of the animals are surrendered and healthy when they get there only to become sick while they stay there reducing the chances of being adopted. I was very frustrated. The paper work states that the Humane Society does not intend to adopt out sick animals but yet they don't test them for major illness.

What I learned from this is that in the future I would only adopt from a place that does test for Felv/FIV and other contagious diseases. I would only recommend adopting from this shelter or any other one like it, if the cat will be the only one in the household so if the Felv/FIV test came back positive, you would not be endangering the lives of any other pet and could still keep the cat.